Arab Youths Take 'Arabs More Than Oil' Message to Climate Talks

Delegates arrive for the second day of the 18th United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Doha on Nov. 27, 2012. Close

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Photographer: Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images

Delegates arrive for the second day of the 18th United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Doha on Nov. 27, 2012.

More
than 100 members of the nascent Arab Youth Climate Movement have descended on
Doha to bring a message to the latest round of United Nations climate talks: ``Arabs are more than oil.''

The Doha talks mark the first time the Middle East has hosted the climate negotiations, and the Qatari organisers paid for more than 100 young Arabs to fly to Doha from countries including Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Oman to attend the discussions. Today, group members and supporters will take part in what's being billed as the first-ever environmental march within the Gulf Cooperation Council region. Thousands are expected to show up.

The
movement was founded in September and has quickly snowballed (in a snowless region)
to more than 1,000 members spread across 15 countries, according to co-ordinator
Reem al Mealla, a 24-year-old Bahraini marine biologist. ``We
have taken that step to join together and come here and show the world that the
Arab youth cares,'' al Mealla told reporters in the Qatari capital.

``The
role they play is extremely important in shaping the future,'' Fahad bin Mohammed
Al-Attiya, a spokesman for the conference, told reporters. ``We are here as
guardians and trustees for a future they will hopefully occupy.''

Oil-dependent
economies in the region, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have over the years riled
environmental groups with negotiating stances designed to protect production of
the fossil fuels that, when combusted, are warming the atmosphere and oceans. The Sierra Club said a Saudi demand for compensation from climate funds to help them diversify away from oil was a ``poisonous concept'' designed to block negotiations.

At mid-year talks in Bonn in 2010, Saudi Arabia blocked a call from island nations for a review of the the international policy community's goal of preventing global temperature rise from exceeding 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Some scientists now suggest the goal should be lower. The review has since been approved.

At
the same talks, NGOs circulated a leaflet showing the country’s nameplate broken
and in a toilet, under the caption “Feeling a bit blocked?”, a reference to
paralysis in the negotiations.

That
led to half an hour of negotiation time being taken up with condemnation of the
action. At the subsequent round of talks a couple of months later, more negotiating
time was taken up with condemnations, apologies, and the announcement
of a lifetime ban for a campaigner at the environmental group WWF, as well as
limitations on the number of WWF and Oxfam campaigners who could attend the
following round of discussions.

``The media say our countries are the main reasons for blocking
most of the negotiations,'' said the 24-year-old al Mealla. They ``are negotiating not just our
fate but the fate of all creatures on the Earth.''

In prior talks, the movement has had a hard time meeting with official delegations, so in Doha, ``we decided to freak them out when we came here,'' said al Mealla.
``We wore T-shirts saying `Arabs: it's time to lead.'''

Delegates
saw the T-shirts and spoke with the youths, she said. Now, they've met with
most delegations, and hope to interact with them in the run-up to the next
round of talks in Warsaw, towards the end of 2013, she said.

Al-Attiya,
the spokesman for the organisers, took the stage with Qatari high school and
university students who themselves are studying their local environment and
human impacts on it. Nasser Bin Marzeek, a high school student, said
he's been studying ocean acidification and its impact on marine life. Maryam
al-Nosf and Abdulla Al-Ishaq described their projects to map the biodiversity
of local mangroves. And Sahar Al-Ansari, a university student, said
she's looking at solar technologies.

The
young Arabs from the youth movement are marching along with other climate
campaigners in an environmental demonstration organised by Doha Oasis, a
local NGO. Khalid Al-Mohannadi, co-founder of the group, said it took just a 15-minute
conversation with the interior minister to organise, and it’s the first of its
kind in the Arab world.

The
Qatari conference organizers say 50 NGOs from Arab countries are expected at
these climate talks. That compares with 5 in the previous 17 annual gatherings.
It's the first time Arab youths have joined with other global youth movements at the talks, according to al
Mealla.

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